Donald Trump could be banned from Twitter after potentially breaking site's rules

Twitter has refused to rule out banning the President-elect of the United States from its service

US President-elect Donald Trump speaks at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina on December 6, 2016 during his USA Thank You Tour (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

Twitter has not ruled out banning Donald Trump from Twitter after a his recent angry tweets.

The President-elect's recent tweets attacked an Indianapolis factory worker called Chuck Jones. Soon after, Mr Jones received a run of abusive calls, the Washington Post reported, apparently spurred on by the tweet.

That appears to potentially be in contravention of Twitter's rules on inciting abuse or harassment, and echoes situations where Twitter has opted to ban people for life.

The company has repeatedly stated that its rules "apply to all accounts", and said that it will not comment on specific users. It has repeated that statement in the wake of the new tweets, Motherboard reported.

But those rules tell users that they "may not incite or engage in the targeted abuse or harassment of others". It makes clear that it will consider a range of factors when deciding whether to lock or ban someone's account – including whehter the reported account is being "one-sided or includes threats", or is "inciting others to harass another account".

Mr Trump's tweet read: "Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country!"

Soon after it was posted, Mr Jones received calls asking "what kind of car" he drives and another one that said only: "We're coming for you".

The tweet and the abuse that followed it are similar to the behaviour that led to Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos being banned from Twitter earlier this year. He was permanently banned from having an account on the site because he sent public messages harassing Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones that led many other users of the site to attack her too.